Featured Wisconsin Cheeses: Emmentaler
By She Simmers
Last year, I shared with you one of my favorite macaroni and cheese recipes,
Spiced Apple Macaroni and Cheese, which happens to be a bit unusual in that it is not a savory pasta gratin. Well, the lack of savoriness of last year is more than compensated for with this pasta gratin that mimics the deep, complex, multi-layered flavor of the classic French onion soup. For a dish that doesn’t contain any meat other than the essence of beef in the beef broth, it doesn’t get any more savory than this.I had this dish years ago at one of my favorite restaurants in the Chicagoland area, and I still remember like it was yesterday how I felt when I took the first bite. The dish had long since disappeared from the menu and the quaint little restaurant had gone out of business, but the memories remain. This is my best attempt at recreating the hearty, “French onion soup” macaroni and cheese which I fell in love with.
As is the case with French onion soup, caramelized onions are the star of the show. A large amount of yellow onions get cooked down slowly over moderate heat until they are browned up, sweet and meltingly soft. For those who are not familiar with making caramelized onions, you may be alarmed by the amount of onion you put in the pan at the initial stage. You may think this is way too much onion for an 8-serving casserole. But you’ll see that the mountain of onion slices soon melts down to merely a small hill. And that’s the beauty of caramelized onions: as the volume decreases, the flavor becomes more and more concentrated.
It’s almost unbelievable that caramelized onions, a non-protein element, serve as the main flavoring agent of this dish; they pack in that much flavor.
Traditional French onion soup, of course, does not involve the creamy béchamel sauce. But we need a starch-based binder in order to make sure that the natural cheese which we’re using here melts readily and seamlessly into the sauce.
The cheese we use is Emmentaler/Swiss. Emmentaler is a nice mild cheese which perfectly complements the deep flavor of caramelized onions instead of competing with it. The medium-hard cheese grates easily and melts into the béchamel like a dream. Besides, there’s a part of me – a pretty big part – that is drawn to holey cheeses.
As for the pasta, you can use any type of short pasta in this dish. Personally, I’ve found the tubular rigatoni or penne to be the most suitable choice. Non-tubular types of pasta, such as fusilli or farfalle, make for too dense a gratin, in my opinion.
Is this a time-consuming and difficult dish to make? Well, yes and no.
The making of caramelized onions definitely takes time. You want to cook down the onions very slowly to bring every bit of flavor out of them. You can’t cook the onions over high heat in hopes of speeding up the process for that would be the surest way to get burnt and bitter onions instead of the sweet, flavorful – almost jam-like – end result which we aim for. This process, therefore, takes time.
But for the most part, caramelized onions take care of themselves in the pan; you only need to give them a stir every 10 minutes or so. During that time, much can be done. You can cook the pasta, grate the cheese, make the béchamel, make the topping, etc. Once the onions are ready, it’s just a matter of mixing them together with the cheese sauce, transferring the mixture to the baking dish, sprinkling the seasoned breadcrumbs on top, and baking the whole thing off.
Caramelized Onion Pasta Gratin
Serve 8
Ingredients:
3 pounds yellow onions (7-8 medium), peeled and cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch slices
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
3/4 pound rigatoni pasta
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
1 cup no salt-added beef broth
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground white or black pepper
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) grated Wisconsin Emmentaler Cheese, divided
2 slices white bread, torn into pieces
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
Directions:
Place the onion slices and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a wide, thick-bottomed sauté pan and
cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally and always spreading the onions out evenly
over the surface of the pan. Continue to cook the onions over medium heat for almost two hours,
scraping and deglazing the pan with a little bit of plain water as necessary. Once the onions are
cooked down to about 2 cups, remove the pan from heat and let the caramelized onions cool.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large pot of water, cook the pasta just until al dente,
rinse it thoroughly with cold water, drain well, and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Once the butter is melted, whisk in the all-purpose flour, milk, beef broth, salt, and ground pepper. Continue to whisk the mixture over medium heat. When the sauce thickens up to the consistency of custard sauce, remove the saucepan from heat. Whisk in 1 cup of the grated Emmentaler cheese while the mixture is still hot; set aside.
Grease a ceramic or glass 9x12x3-inch baking dish; set aside. In a food processor,
pulse together the bread, the remaining olive oil, the remaining Emmentaler and thyme leaves until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the pasta, the cheese sauce, and the caramelized onions,
making sure the onion pieces are distributed evenly. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture all over the surface of the pasta mixture. Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the pasta is heated through.
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Emmentaler, Macaroni & Cheese, Recipe, Wisconsin Cheese
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Wow… Two of my favorite things in one dish! I know what we are having this weekend! Thanks!!
Sounds great. I’m going to share the whole 30 days worth with my sister. Her kids love mac&cheese and she might like some new varieties.
Sounds great. I’m going to share the whole 30 days worth with my sister. Her kids love macaroni & cheese and she might like some new varieties.